Teen Held in Gang Killing Escapes

A 15-year-old facing trial on charges of killing a rival gang member escaped from custody Monday while at an orthodontist’s office in Huntington Park, authorities said.

Daniel Ortiz was shackled at the ankles and escorted by two unarmed Los Angeles County probation officers about 11 a.m. when he fled from the office in the 2600 block of Gage Avenue and jumped into a car.

“Several patients walked in the office, creating enough of a distraction that the minor bolted for the door,” said Robert Smythe, chief of the Los Angeles County Probation Department’s detention services bureau.

“The driver displayed a firearm, and our staff backed off before the driver took off down the street at a high rate of speed,” Smythe said.

Los Angeles police said that Ortiz was awaiting trial for an Aug. 19 killing at Compton Avenue and 49th Street.

Ortiz, who was housed at Central Juvenile Hall, is the sixth youth this year to escape from the custody of the Probation Department, which has been under fire for the escapes. Two of them occurred during medical appointments.

Kenneth Gilliam, a 17-year-old gang member convicted of trying to gun down three teenage boys, escaped from Sylmar Juvenile Hall in March by breaking a window and scaling a fence topped with razor wire two days before he faced a possible life sentence.

He has not been found.

In July, convicted murderer Jose Argueta, 17, used a gun to escape from Central Juvenile Hall along with convicted murderer Marvin Sandoval, 17, and convicted carjacker Fernando Nupiri, 18.

All three remain at large.

A week later, a 16-year-old being held at Central Juvenile Hall in an armed robbery case escaped from custody while at a medical appointment at a nearby clinic.

The youth, Steven Frazier, is back in custody.

The county Board of Supervisors ordered the Probation Department, which runs the juvenile halls, to work with the sheriff’s custody division to find room in the county jails to house teenagers that are either charged or convicted of adult crimes.

Smythe noted, however, that a Los Angeles Juvenile Court judge must order that minors be sent to County Jail, though it can be requested by the Probation Department or the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Thus far, 40 juveniles have been placed in Los Angeles County facilities out of a total population of 1,650 housed at the county’s three main juvenile detention complexes: the Central, Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf juvenile halls.

The Board of Supervisors last month ordered probation officials to devise a plan to prevent escapes while transferring teenagers who have been convicted as adults to County Jail.

Probation officials, in turn, hired the county Sheriff’s Department to review security at juvenile halls.